Bigtymin504 wrote:Hey could a moderator could be so kind to edit the thread title for me? I tried several times but for some reason it won't edit for me. Could you please change the thread title to Bendis and Maleev's "Scarlet"? Kthxbai.

Hmm did you fix it? It's still showing up as Bendis and Maleev's "O-X" for me.

Engaging. Innovative. Exciting. That pretty much sums up what I thought about this debut issue. Bendis really pulls you into Scarlet's world and makes you feel like a part of the story. The way she breaks the 4th wall and talks to the reader directly was handled great. I loved the way her origins were told with snapshots of momentous parts of her life. Top notch art by Maleev, his photo-realistic style is best suited for this kind of story.

And the last spread with Scarlet directly telling us "I'm going to stop it. All of it. But the thing of it is...you're going to help me." has me really looking forward to what this book has in store for us!

If you aren't reading this book there is something wrong with you. Scarlet was the best thing I read this week and I can't wait for the next issue. It was just so good. Scarlet brought something new to comics that has to be read.

Engaging. Innovative. Exciting. That pretty much sums up what I thought about this debut issue. Bendis really pulls you into Scarlet's world and makes you feel like a part of the story. The way she breaks the 4th wall and talks to the reader directly was handled great. I loved the way her origins were told with snapshots of momentous parts of her life. Top notch art by Maleev, his photo-realistic style is best suited for this kind of story.

And the last spread with Scarlet directly telling us "I'm going to stop it. All of it. But the thing of it is...you're going to help me." has me really looking forward to what this book has in store for us!

I have yet to read the first issue. I decided to skip it, and now I'm regretting it. I'm going to stop by my LCS tomorrow and see if they still have any copies left. Anyway, that quote you posted makes it seem like the audience is seeing things from the POV of a character in the book. Is that a possibility?

^^^ As far as I can tell from the interviews that I've read with Bendis it was the reader that she was talking to and if anything we're seeing the story from her POV. I think it'll be clearer once you read the book.

Engaging. Innovative. Exciting. That pretty much sums up what I thought about this debut issue. Bendis really pulls you into Scarlet's world and makes you feel like a part of the story. The way she breaks the 4th wall and talks to the reader directly was handled great. I loved the way her origins were told with snapshots of momentous parts of her life. Top notch art by Maleev, his photo-realistic style is best suited for this kind of story.

And the last spread with Scarlet directly telling us "I'm going to stop it. All of it. But the thing of it is...you're going to help me." has me really looking forward to what this book has in store for us!

I have yet to read the first issue. I decided to skip it, and now I'm regretting it. I'm going to stop by my LCS tomorrow and see if they still have any copies left. Anyway, that quote you posted makes it seem like the audience is seeing things from the POV of a character in the book. Is that a possibility?

That's a cool possibility...but from everything I've seen and heard, Scarlet is shattering the fourth wall and talking to us the readers directly throughout the story. It's quite cool, you feel personally invested in her story. I'd highly recommend checking out the first issue and going from there.

Engaging. Innovative. Exciting. That pretty much sums up what I thought about this debut issue. Bendis really pulls you into Scarlet's world and makes you feel like a part of the story. The way she breaks the 4th wall and talks to the reader directly was handled great. I loved the way her origins were told with snapshots of momentous parts of her life. Top notch art by Maleev, his photo-realistic style is best suited for this kind of story.

And the last spread with Scarlet directly telling us "I'm going to stop it. All of it. But the thing of it is...you're going to help me." has me really looking forward to what this book has in store for us!

Let me say first that I definitely enjoyed this first issue. The art by Maleev was worth the price of admission alone (I know it's been described as photo-realistic but I don't see it that way in the slightest - I think it's stylistic - a photo may be the starting point for some of his work but he takes it so much further). The story I think Bendis wants to tell here is a good one that I'm definitely interested in.

However....I don't like Bendis's writing when he overuses gimmicks (for an example see his work at the start of Mighty Avengers with the use of thought balloons) and make no mistake - this breaking of the fourth wall is a bit of a gimmick. So I will be very interested to see how he continues to use the technique. At the end of the day the story here is what needs to dominate not the storytelling technique. I see a risk here that it could become all about the technique. Let's hope not.

I'm actually more hopeful that she's speaking to someone that's filming her which then provides a reason for breaking the fourth wall. It's probably not the case.

Everyone wants to be Scarlet on a bad day. I liked this. This isn't a vigilantism that's really touched on in comics, let alone entertainment. And Maleev brings those characters and their words to life with each panel. Bendis & Maleev have something here.

After reading issue 2 I can say that I really love this book. The art is fantastic and it's written so well. I wish it wasn't bimonthly, but as long as the quality is strong it really doesn't matter to me.

comicgeekelly wrote:After reading issue 2 I can say that I really love this book. The art is fantastic and it's written so well. I wish it wasn't bimonthly, but as long as the quality is strong it really doesn't matter to me.

I'm happy with all these bi-monthly books lately if it keeps these great artists on time.

Well, I have to say I have completely turned around on the breaking the fourth wall "gimmick" as I called it. In retrospect, I completely disagree now with my comments from earlier. Here's why:

- Scarlet talking to the reader is actually not a whole lot different from characters narrating stories, which is a device used by it must be 70% of comic book writers at the moment. Who is the character narrating the story to? The reader. Well, then they're virtually breaking the fourth wall whenever they do that. So really, not a whole lot different to Scarlet talking directly to us.

- As one of the letter writers mentions (and I love Bendis's devotion to the letters page) this is a method used by Shakespeare. I love Shakespeare and it's never bothered me when his characters do it so it shouldn't really bother me when Bendis's characters do. Not that big a deal really.

So even though I still think it probably is a bit of a gimmick, I find myself not minding it at all now.

And on the story - well I enjoyed it but it obviously feels like early days yet. I get the sense everything is going to escalate and it will be very interesting to experience that ride. I suspect it will be a wild one.

^Yeah #2 was very good. What Scarlet did at the end was a bit unexpected, it lets us know how far she's willing to go. You can tell Bendis and Maleev are building this character and world from the ground up for the long haul.

Interesting. I don't know that I saw much new from last issue. The thing I struggled with a bit was that I didn't see that Scarlet actually convinced Brandon. I don't feel Bendis convinced me that she'd convinced Brandon to get on board with committing these acts.

As usual the art was great.

Huge amount of text (which is all great in my opinion) at the back and I thought one letter in particular was interesting - the one about what differentiates Scarlet from just another character and it appears next issue we start to see. And I think what it is, is that she's an agitator. Sure she got her revenge but it's a bit more than that. Whereas the Punisher is not out to get the public on board or joining in on what he's doing I think that's exactly what Scarlet's going to be up to.

The problem will be stopping her whole idea going down the tubes when too many nutcases climb on board her bandwagon which is inevitable.

Interesting. I don't know that I saw much new from last issue. The thing I struggled with a bit was that I didn't see that Scarlet actually convinced Brandon. I don't feel Bendis convinced me that she'd convinced Brandon to get on board with committing these acts.

As usual the art was great.

Huge amount of text (which is all great in my opinion) at the back and I thought one letter in particular was interesting - the one about what differentiates Scarlet from just another character and it appears next issue we start to see. And I think what it is, is that she's an agitator. Sure she got her revenge but it's a bit more than that. Whereas the Punisher is not out to get the public on board or joining in on what he's doing I think that's exactly what Scarlet's going to be up to.

The problem will be stopping her whole idea going down the tubes when too many nutcases climb on board her bandwagon which is inevitable.